A question I get a lot is whether there are veterinarians in this rural part of southern Italy; there definitely are, and clients probably use their services just as much if not more for goats, sheep, and horses as for cats and dogs. In that sense, we’re probably luckier than many in, say, America, who may have a more difficult time finding an experienced goat vet.

Indeed, our veterinarian regularly makes house calls, even for dogs and cats. We prefer that our animals live rather naturally with as many herbal/holistic remedies and as few doctor’s visits as possible, but our goats suddenly developed an issue with pidocchi (lice) and Pinta had a bit of a cough that I thought may have been related to lungworms, so the doc came the other day and gave them each anIvomec shot, which should take care of all their internal and external parasite issues.

Indeed the girls seemed brighter-eyed and more playful just an hour or so after the meds, so hopefully that means they were working. Or, you know, they got high. Hey, happy goats are a good thing!

Anyway, I really would much prefer to try herbal wormers, but I haven’t found any in Italy; if you happen to know of any, please let me know.

Also, the vet recommended a spray-on anti-parasitic treatment for cleaning the pen, but it sounds pretty chemically powerful. I’m wondering if any of you have suggestions on more natural methods so we can keep our goaties from doing a lot of this in the future?

I discussed this a lot thru the years (had horses). The moment you interrupt their natural environment, even the slightest bit, it is impossible to stop that flow. In the wild, they’d just leave the infected area, of course. In some instances horse medicine is more advanced AND/OR more conservative. We went the preventative route.
Sorry, no specific suggestions, just understand the quandry.

Thanks; I think as it turns out there’s not a lot specific to goats anyway — always looking for things compatible, often for cattle. *sigh* Thanks for the support Karen 🙂

I’ve been using Molly’s herbal wormer for my goats and have been happy with that. Her formula contains much of what is mentioned at this site – http://fiascofarm.com/herbs/wormer.htm as natural wormers for goats. Table 3 on that site gives dosages, including for Shaklee’s Preparation H, which is what was used by the gal I bought my newest goat from. She uses it every 6 months. Evedently the use of Prep H is mentioned in Joel Salatin’s book _Salad Bar Beef_. He uses it for cattle.

If you’re having fly problems, we’ve found the use of organic fly predators to work splendidly for us. We were having a serious fly problem in our bunny barn and they really knock out a population of those pests. Now, we use them in all our barns and the chicken coop. We get ours from Spaulding Labs, Inc., in California, USA. They look like tiny fleas, but apparently their life’s mission is to bore into fly eggs and eat from within. You may have someone on the continent who produces these as well. Good Luck!

I use Hoegger’s herbal wormer, and I really like it. If I do have to do a chemical wormer, I use Ivomec. I just heard of the fly predators that Ken and Mary suggest, but hadn’t tried it. I’m glad to hear they work, and I might have to try that. Good luck. I’m not sure what you’d use to clean the buildings other than chemical. It’s an issue I struggle with also.

I got a Hoegger’s catalog when I was in the States…if I had gotten it earlier, I would’ve ordered it and just brought it over on the plane (less likely to get stopped that way I think). I’m going to repost this to Twitter too, to see if anyone has more suggestions…feel free to ask around and let me know what you find out too!

I’m no help because I use Ivomec. But I don’t routinely worm. Only when they need it. I had lice on my goats several years ago after bringing a new one in that had lice. I just treated the goats and didn’t do the environment other than clean out the bedding real good and they went away. No host no lice I guess.

Thanks goatgirl; ours got lice last year when a new herd member came in & we just did Ivomec and cleaning like you said — no cleanser and that worked fine. I don’t know what happened this year, but I think we’re going to just use this chemical stuff to be sure that the nits are gone too. I just read that tea tree oil might work even as part of a shampoo…ooh I see a blog post coming if I’m giving goat baths 😉

Hey happy goats means a happy two legged mom..he he! Me so happy for you all! Hope you find an herbal wormer! The thing we have around here is that vet’s don’t make farm calls anymore, but I could see in Italy..maybe there are more goats, etc than cats/dogs. Have fun…huggies to the babies! and a BIG too…he he!

Here cats and dogs aren’t often “pets” unfortunately; lots of strays, so people don’t tend to be too concerned with things like medical care. Very sad, actually 🙁 Hugs given…more again later!

Thank you for your nice comment on my blog!
I’m here for the first time today and I have to say: Your photos are BEAUTIFUL!
Love your post, I am extremely interested in exploring more “natural” ways of doing things that people traditionally use heavy medications/chemicals for.
I look forward to reading more of your blog… -danni

Aw, thank you; it was a nice surprise to find your site as well, and I look forward to reading more 🙂

Thanks for visiting my blog! I love your photos too, and am looking forward to seeing more of your blog.

When we first got our goats, we lost a kid to the barber pole worm. He came to us infected, and his mother and the other nanny we had were infected too. We were really worried they would die after he did. Our local small animal vet was kind enough to make a house call, and showed us how to worm them with Ivomec. We did it regularly for a while. In the meantime, my husband talked to someone at the local feed store who had goats, and she recommended adding minerals to their feed. We started doing that, and also rotating them from one pasture to another every 3-4 weeks to let the parasites go through a life cycle. We read up on the Famacha method of looking at their inner eyelids to see when they got over the anemia (red is good!). After a few months, everything looked good, so we stopped the ivomec. That was last fall, and they’ve been looking good ever since.

You probably already do these things, and I don’t know if it would have worked if we had more than just the two goats either, but it did work for us.

We had a fly problem last year, but now that we no longer have a horse, we haven’t had any problems this year!

So sorry you lost a little one and had so much trouble 🙁 Thanks for sharing your advice and experiences…happy to hear all is well now, and thank *you* for coming by 😀

Hi Michelle! I bet if you emailed Molly she’d pass on her blend since you can’t get it. If not, she does list the herbs used and you can….that is if you can purchase herbs like we can at least right now in the States….anyway, they are basic parasite herbs; wormwood (which is toxic in high quantities), black walnut, garlic etc. I’m using Molly because during stressful times it’s just easier to let someone else blend it. And these have been stressful times. I still am a firm believer that if their mineral balance is right then you won’t have parasite problems or health problems. Pat Coleby in Natural Goat Care is a firm believer in this theory. Making sure they get plenty of copper is the most important of minerals. Anyway, just my thoughts.

By the way, your goats are beautiful! What kind are they? They have the nubian ears but they have longer hair. Just beautiful!

Thanks Diane; they’re mutts 🙂 They are definitely part local, rustic breed from around here, but we don’t know exactly what that means! I’ll have to play around a bit with the blending when I get a chance…just after I find a good herb shop. Thanks so much for coming by!